RIO DE JANEIRO >> If U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman has trouble sleeping Monday night it wasn’t because she was concerned about the competition at the Olympic Games team final at the Rio Olympic Arena Tuesday afternoon.

“Simone and Lauri will come in my room at 9:30 and I literally have to get them out at 9:50 because if they get too hyper I won’t be able to fall asleep,” Raisman said referring to teammates Simone Biles and Lauren Hernandez and her 10 p.m. bedtime.

Not that there won’t be some sleepless nights in the Olympic Village Monday.

The question isn’t whether Team USA will win the gold medal but by how much. Even the official website of FIG, gymnastics’ worldwide governing body, blared in a headline Monday “The Americans on their own planet.”

The U.S. opened its bid to become only the second non-Soviet Union team to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in Sunday’s qualifying round with one of the most dominant performances in the sport’s history.

Team USA’s score of 185.238 was nearly 10 points ahead of second place China. The U.S. posted the highest individual score on each of the four individual apparatus, Biles posting the top mark on the floor exercise, vault and balance beam all by herself. Madison Kocian led qualifiers on the uneven bars. All five U.S. athletes advanced to individual finals later in the week.

The American’s only setback was also another indication of their dominance.

Raisman and Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic all-around champion, finished second and third behind Biles in the individual all-around standings. Only Raisman, however, will advance to Thursday’s individual all-around because of a FIG rule limiting each nation to two competitors in individual finals.

In recent years FIG has tried to legislate parity into the sport through a series of rule changes. The changes have not shaken the U.S. dominance.

Which is why when Raisman was asked what she and her teammates needed to improve upon Tuesday, her response was matter of fact without a hint of conceit.

“I don’t think we have to improve,” Raisman said. “We just have to do the same thing.”

Scott M. Reid is a sports enterprise/investigative reporter for the Orange County Register. He also covers Olympic and international sports as well as the Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. His work for the Register has led to investigations by the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Legislature, and the national governing bodies for gymnastics and swimming. Reid's 2011 reporting on wide spread sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics and the governing body's failure to effectively address it led to Don Peters, coach of the 1984 record-setting Olympic team, being banned from the sport for life. His reporting also prompted USA Gymnastics to adopt new guidelines and policies dealing with sexual abuse. Reid's 2012 and 2013 reporting on sexual abuse within USA Swimming led to the banishment of two top level coaches. Reid has won 11 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting since 1999. He has also been honored by APSE for game writing, and enterprise, news, and beat reporting. He was an Investigative Reporters and Editors award finalist in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining the Register in 1996, Reid worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a B.A. in the History of the Americas from the University of Washington.